Why Brad Pitt was banned from China after 1997 movie Seven Years in Tibet
- China was unhappy with Seven Years in Tibet, which was essentially a 136-minute plea for Tibetan freedom with Chinese characters that do not come off well
- Stars Brad Pitt, David Thewlis and director Jean-Jacques Annaud were banned from the country, and Sony’s multibillion-dollar business empire was put at risk
In 1997, Brad Pitt had the world at his feet. Combining box office appeal with critical approbation, he’d already worked with some of Hollywood’s best directors (David Fincher, Terry Gilliam, Tony Scott) and was looking to spread his wings even further.
Seven Years in Tibet – based on the 1952 memoir by Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer (1912-2006) and directed by the acclaimed French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Name of the Rose) – seemed like the perfect choice.
While climbing the Himalayas in the run-up to World War II, Harrer (played by Pitt) is captured and interred in an Indian prisoner-of-war camp. He and his friend Peter Aufschnaiter (played by David Thewlis) escape in 1944, then cross the border into Tibet.
Here, they are welcomed into the holy city of Lhasa and, eventually, the inner circle of the teenaged 14th – and present-day – Dalai Lama (played by Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk). But after the Chinese occupation in 1950, Harrer is forced to bid goodbye to the Dalai Lama, who had become his protégé, and return home to Austria.
It’s a hell of a story, albeit with a few obvious stumbling blocks. Harrer was an officer in the Nazi paramilitary, a fact that the film admits, but downplays.